ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

Co-Lead for Environmental Data Science & AI, Manchester Environmental Research Institute (MERI), The University of Manchester, June 2025 – Present

Assistant Professor (permanent appointment) in Data Science & Environmental Analytics, The University of Manchester, March 2025 – Present

Assistant Professor (probationary appointment) in Data Science & Environmental Analytics, The University of Manchester, August 2022 – March 2025

Editor, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP, an EGU journal), February 2024 – Present

I am always looking for talented and self-motivated PhD/MPhil students and visiting PhD students. 

More information can be found at

• Personal Website: https://zhonghuazheng.com/
• Opportunities (PhD students and Postdocs): https://zhonghuazheng.com/opp
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ShGPJysAAAAJ&hl=en
  
  

SELECTED Research Grants (secured over £1,000,000 as PI since 2025)

• "Global-scale modelling of urban climate projection and adaptation based on local climate zones" (~£1 million), PI, UK Research and Innovation, 2025-2028
• "Cloud-based platform for democratizing urban climate modelling", PI, Amazon Web Services, Inc., 2025-2026
• "Deep learning-enabled bias correction for PM2.5 simulations on unstructured grids in the UK", PI, Royal Society, 2025-2026
• "Active learning-enhanced aerosol chemical mixing state emulation", PI, The Aerosol Society, 2025-2026
• "Dynamic Earth system modelling for informing regional urban climate adaptations" (one of only 6 projects funded under the 2024 call), PI (with Prof. Francis Tam from CUHK), The University of Manchester and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Research Fund, 2025-2026
• "Deciphering airborne nanoplastic patterns: lab analytics merged with machine learning" (one of only 12 projects funded under the 2023 call), PI (with Prof. Arthur Chan from University of Toronto), Manchester-Melbourne-Toronto (MMT) Research Fund, 2023-2025

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

09/2019 – 12/2020: Data Scientist Intern at Bayer AG

• Affiliation (The Climate Corporation): Science -> Enabling -> Sustainability (05/2019 – 12/2020)
• Affiliation (The Climate Corporation): Science -> Data Insights & Discovery (09/2019 – 05/2020)

09/2018 – 07/2019: Data Scientist Intern at Bayer AG

• Affiliation (The Climate Corporation): Science -> Data Insights & Discovery (01/2019 – 07/2019)
• Affiliation (The Climate Corporation): Science -> Measurements Team -> Sensor Intelligence (09/2018 – 12/2018)

05/2018 – 08/2018: Researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

• Affiliation: National Center for Computational Sciences -> Advanced Data and Workflow Group
• Media Coverage: ORNL

01/2018 – 05/2018: Data Scientist-UIUC Innovation Center at Monsanto Company

• Affiliation (The Climate Corporation): Science -> Measurements Team
• Affiliation (Monsanto Company): GLB Breeding -> Analytics & Pipeline Design

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Advanced Study Program (ASP) Postdoctoral Fellow, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), January 2022 – August 2022

• Mentors: Dr. David John Gagne, Dr. Keith Oleson, and Dr. John Schreck
• Affiliation: Computational & Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) and Climate & Global Dynamics Laboratory (CGD)

Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, January 2021 – January 2022

• Advisors: Prof. Arlene M. Fiore (now at MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Prof. Daniel M. Westervelt
• Affiliation: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

PhD, Environmental Engineering in Civil Engineering with a concentration in Computational Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2020 (December)

• Advisors: Prof. Nicole Riemer and Prof. Lei Zhao
• Ph.D. Dissertation: Coupling data science and numerical simulations to empower atmospheric and environmental research

MCS, Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

MS, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Advisor: Prof. Xinlei Wang
• M.S. Thesis: Impedance-based moisture content sensor assessment for gas-phase biofilters

BEng, Biosystems Engineering, Zhejiang University, 2015